Ecuador’s Constitutional Court last month rejected a petition by the local tuna fishing industry challenging a key conservation law that governs the Galápagos Islands. The Association of Tuna Fishermen of Ecuador (Atunec) had asked the high court to allow its members to fish within the 51,000-square-mile (133,000-sq-km) Galápagos Marine Reserve, where commercial fishing is prohibited. Its petition was rejected in an 8-1 vote, with one abstention. Though the ruling cannot be appealed, Atunec President Bernardo Buehs says his organization will continue to press for the right to fish within the reserve along the western coast of the islands of Isabela and Fernandina. The association questions the authority of Galápagos National Park officials to restrict fishing of a species that is not...
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With help from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Bolivian government has designated three major wetland areas as Ramsar sites. The sites—the Bañados del Izogog-Rio Parapetí, El Palmar de las Islas-Salinas de San José, and the Bolivian Pantanal—collectively cover 11.6 million acres (4.7 million hectares). All are located in the lowland department of Santa Cruz. Bolivia’s announcement, made Sept. 17, marks one of the largest such designations in the history of the Ramsar Convention, a landmark international wetlands-protection agreement that took effect in 1975. It brings the total of Ramsar sites in Bolivia to six, the other three being Laguna Colorada in the southern altiplano, Lake Titicaca and the Tajzara watershed in the department of Tarija. Bolivia’s portion of the...
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Recent reports of an accident at one of Brazil’s nuclear power stations have prompted charges of a cover-up and calls for improved public disclosure. Epoca, a Brazilian newsweekly, reported late last month that in May, 5,800 gallons (22,000 liters) of slightly radioactive water leaked from the main cooling system of Angra I, the older of Brazil’s two reactors, into an emergency-containment tank inside the reactor building. The accident occurred as engineers restarted the plant after a week-long shutdown carried out to replace fuel rods. The cause was human error: someone neglected to close a water-pressure-control valve during restart operations. Epoca’s exposé, headlined “Angra I Leaks in Silence,” provoked a storm of criticism of the government, which had not informed the...
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The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has ruled that Nicaragua must grant property titles to the Mayagna Indian community of Awas Tingni. In a decision made public last month, the court found that the government had violated the Awas Tingni’s property rights when it granted a timber concession on the community’s Atlantic-coast land. The community’s lawyers say the ruling marks the first time the human rights court of the Organization of American States has heard a land dispute case and the first time it has ruled in favor of collective property rights. They say the case could have ramifications for numerous areas of the Americas where indigenous people lack title to their traditional lands. “This is a precedent-setting case,” says the community’s...
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